World Building Advice for Crafting a Magical System for Your Fantasy World
Crafting a unique and captivating magical world is essential for drawing readers into your story. In this post, I will explore key elements to consider when developing a magic system that will leave your audience spellbound. From defining the limits of magic to creating realistic history for your magic, as well as unique magical creatures, this post will help you unlock the secrets for crafting a truly enchanting fantasy world. So let's see what you should consider when planning out your magic system:
1.Magic’s History
If you follow me on Pinterest or if you read my other blog posts, you will already know that I am a huge fan of creating history and historical events for your fantasy world. So it's only natural for me to tell you that creating a history for the magic used and found in your world can be an interesting way to create a realistic and engaging magic system. Consider the following example:
There has always been magic in your world. People used it for all kinds of daily activities and tasks. Some had more powerful magic, while others had weaker magic. Someday, magic vanished and chaos broke loose. How did people react? How did they manage to adapt to a world without magic—a power that controlled all aspects of their lives? Do they have to start at zero again? Did once-mighty cities and kingdoms fall? Maybe people who had more powerful magic are losing their importance in the realms, because they were heavily relying on their magic, while people who had weaker magic couldn't rely on it as much and are now the ones who keep societies running. How would magic users with more powerful magic react to this?
Do you see how many questions I can already ask myself about this world I just randomly created? You can already add historical events, myths, and legends (maybe there is a specific myth that is told that “explains“ the reason for the disappearance of magic?), conflict (will there be revolts from the once powerful and important people who now feel as if they lost everything in life? ), consequences (maybe these revolts resulted in the rebels (as well as their descendants) being viewed with fear and distrust, which resulted in prejudice and unfair treatment? ), as well as conspiracies or conspiracy myths (maybe people say there was a plan on making magic disappear so that a specific group will lose or gain power? You can decide if it's true or not.) I will also write a post about how to implement conspiracies, as well as conspiracy myths, into your fantasy world in the future, so follow me on Pinterest to not miss it!
Keep in mind that if magic is an important aspect of your world, it should also have significant consequences for your world's history. This does not only apply to my example above, but also if magic is still a big part of your world:
Maybe some extremely powerful magicians tried to gain power, which resulted in battles or the conquest of a realm, kingdom, or group of people. Once they were stopped, an organization was formed that now heavily controls the way magicians are taught, how magicians are allowed to use their magic, and what penalties they'll get if they do not follow any of these laws. Maybe this organization has the right to strip away a magical user's magic if they overstep the law too many times. Once again: conflict potential. Who ensures that their judgment is fair? Maybe they become an oppressive force themselves?
Think about what role the magic in your world plays, what could have happened in the past, and how this affects the current time in which your story plays.
2.Who Can Use Magic?
Just because your world has magic doesn't necessarily mean that everyone can use it. Reasons why people might not be able to use magic:
They are simply born without the ability to (do people know the reason for this, or are they lacking any scientific explanation? Maybe there is a myth about why certain people are born without the ability to use magic).
They lose their ability if they experience magical burnout too often or too strongly.
They lose their ability if injured.
Using magic requires one to be excessively trained, but magical trainers are expensive, and not everyone can afford them. This means some people theoretically have the potential to use magic, but they never will because they don't have enough money.
Someone can forcefully take your magic abilities, and you will never get them back.
3.How are Non-Magic-Users Viewed?
If there are people who can't use any magic for whatever reason, what consequences does this have for their position in society? Are they ostracized? Are they pitied? Are they hated? Are they ignored?
4. Different Magic Abilities
What different magic abilities are there in your world? Are some rarer than others? If yes, how are people with rare magical abilities viewed? Are they well respected because this rare magic ability provides some kind of security or advantage to the community they live in? Or are they feared because their magic ability is viewed as something evil and dangerous? Does the reaction to these rare magic users vary in different regions of your world? What might be the reasons for this?
Depending on the reaction rare magic users get from the environment they live in, how do they, their families, or their friends react upon discovering their magic? Are they trying to hide any proof of the existence of their magic? Or are they trying to portray it as more powerful than it really is? What consequences could this have?
5. Magic as an Inherited Trait?
Is magic, and the exact magical ability, inherited by the parents, or does it appear to be assigned randomly? If it is inherited, when do people realize they have magic? It is something that is visible from birth and it feels like a part of the magic user, or does it suddenly awaken later in life and the magic user has to first learn to live it because it doesn't feel like part of the magic user yet?
6. Training and Physical Effects
Do magic users have to train their magic abilities? How does this training look? What physical effects can the training or magic use in general have on the user? Maybe having certain powers is physically painful? Or maybe mentally painful?
Also consider what effects it can have if magic users use their magic too often or if they exhaust themselves. (e.g., can they lose their powers? Can they get hurt? Can they accidentally hurt others?)
7. Gatekeeping Magic
Depending on what direction you want your story to go, you can also think about the possibility of certain organizations or groups trying (or also succeeding) to gatekeep magic. How would they be able to do this? Why would they want to do it? Does everybody know that they are gatekeeping access to magic, or is it a secret?
8. Limits of Magic
Keep in mind that your magical system shouldn't be the solution to every single conflict you have. Even magic should have its limits and drawbacks. Possible drawbacks could be:
Your magic physically hurts if you are trying to use it for evil purposes.
You only have a certain fixed reservoir of magical powers. Every time you use it, a portion of that vanishes. Once you run out of it, you will never be able to use magic again.
You have to be extremely well trained and experienced, because most spells can go in a completely different direction than you intended them to go, and the result might be worse than whatever threat you were trying to fight against in the first place.
Every time you use your magical powers, your life is cut a little shorter.
All magic has a price, and your character isn't sure they want to pay it.
9. Magical Environment
The last aspect I want to briefly talk about is a magical environment. Are the people in your story the only beings that can use magic, or are there also certain magical creatures? What are they? Also consider if you want to create your own magical creatures for your fantasy book.
But don't just stop with magical creatures. Maybe there are magical plants as well? How would they look, and what do they do?
Maybe you also have magical weather. (e.g., during a specific weather phenomenon, people and animals can be cursed if they are touched by specific raindrops, and plants that are watered with this cursed water can actually take in the curse, and if you eat it later, you'll be affected as well. The only cure is to go to a healer who has specified in dealing with these curses.
Or maybe there are magical diseases? Keep in mind that magic could spread into all aspects of a world, especially if it is powerful to begin with.
I hope this post helped you get an idea of what questions you can ask if you want to create a convincing and engaging magic system! Follow me on Pinterest to not miss any updates on writing advice, world-building advice, and writing prompts, and check out my Patreon account for exclusive content and more! Also, if you’re searching for writing and reading recommendations, check out my Benable profile, too!
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